Enrollments low for health exchanges

Obama has said he’s sorry that people are losing their coverage and has vowed to find ways to address “holes and gaps” in the law. Advisers originally said the White House was considering administrative fixes, not legislative options.

On Wednesday, Obama spokesman Jay Carney said, “If we can achieve this administratively, we will certainly look at that possibility,” but he added that the White House was also considering legislative ideas.

Republicans, meanwhile, are holding hearings to keep the overhaul’s problems in the spotlight ahead of an election year.

“It’s kind of interesting to see as Obamacare implodes how everybody’s running for cover,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. And Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, “Obviously, panic has set in on the other side.”

The drama in Washington was not the focus of local organizations that have been trying for more than a month to get people to enroll in Covered California policies.

Jan Spencley, the executive director of San Diegans for Health Care Coverage, a nonprofit that focuses on health outreach and education, said she believed the low numbers were due to an initial lack of trained enrollment workers and to the public’s desire to mull over its options before making a decision.

Overall, she said, her organization has seen plenty of interest from the public despite low enrollment numbers.

“People are actually shopping. There is an incredible amount of interest, but people really want to understand everything better before they enroll,” Spencley said.

Gary Rotto, director of health policy for the San Diego Council of Community Clinics, said he is encouraged by the 2.4 million unique visits the exchange’s website got in October.

“That number shows that people are interested and they’re looking. I don’t think anyone expected, in the first month, for all of them to rush in and sign up all at once,” Rotto said.

The administration has staked its credibility on turning the website around by the end of this month. From the president on down, officials have said that HealthCare.gov will be running smoothly for the vast majority of users by Nov. 30. They have not specified what “running smoothly” means.